Geoffrey Chaucer: 
The Electronic Canterbury Tales


Daniel T. Kline | U of Alaska Anchorage | Dept of English | CV | Pedagogy  

 


"But now to yow, ye loveres that ben here,  Was Troilus nought in a kankedort?"

Troilus and Criseyde 
2: 1751-52

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Electronic Canterbury Tales - Kankedort.Net Index Page

  1. The Canterbury Tales in Middle English

  2. The Canterbury Tales in Translation

  3. General Historical & Cultural Backgrounds

  4. Sources, Analogues, & Related Texts

  5. Online Notes & Commentary

  6. Online Articles & Books

  7. Student Projects & Essays

  8. Online Bibliography

  9. Syllabi & Course Descriptions

  10. Images & Multimedia

  11. Audio Files & Language Helps

  12. Potpourri

  13. Additional Resources

  14. Scholar's Dozen

  15. What's New? Recent Additions to the ECT





Web Resources by Tale 

Electronic Canterbury Tales - Kankedort.Net Index Page

Fragment I / Group A
The General Prologue
The Knight's Tale
The Miller's Prologue & Tale
The Reeve's Prologue & Tale
The Cook's Prologue & Tale

Fragment II / Group B1
The Man of Law's Introduction, Prologue, Tale, & Epilogue

Fragment III / Group D
The Wife of Bath's Prologue & Tale
The Friar's Prologue & Tale
The Summoner's Prologue & Tale

Fragment IV / Group E
The Clerk's Prologue & Tale
The Merchant's Prologue, Tale, & Epilogue
 
Fragment V / Group F
The Squire's Introduction & Tale
The Franklin's Prologue & Tale

Fragment VI / Group C
The Physician's Tale
The Pardoner's Introduction, Prologue, & Tale

Fragment VII / Group B2
The Shipman's Tale
The Prioress's Prologue & Tale
The Prologue & Tale of Sir Thopas
The Tale of Melibee
The Monk's Prologue & Tale
The Nun's Priest's Prologue,
Tale, & Epilogue

 
Fragment VIII / Group G
The Second Nun's Prologue & Tale
The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue & Tale

Fragment IX / Group H 
The Manciple's Prologue & Tale

Fragment X / Group I
The Parson's Prologue & Tale
The Retraction



The Electronic Canterbury Tales:

Troilus and Criseyde



 

An Online Compendium and Companion
to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

WHAT'S NEW?


The Prioress's Tale

1.  In Middle English

The Words of the Host to the Prioress, the Prioress's Prologue, and the Prioress's Tale at the UVa Electronic Text Center.

Read the Prioress's Prologue and Tale in the context of Fragment VII - Group B2.

2.  In Modern English Translation

Scott Gettman's edition of the Canterbury Tales (Electronic Literature Foundation) is accessible by individual tale & available in a variety of formats:  Middle English, Modern English, Facing Page, & Interpolated - Glossed (frames; from unknown base text).

  • Although unsuitable for formal research or college work, the ELF is the best online version for younger readers and those unfamiliar with Middle English. Easily navigable, and the Middle English glosses are very helpful.

The Litrix Reading Room translation of the Canterbury Tales features rhyming couplets.

Sinan Kökbugur's helpfully glossed hypertext Middle English rendition of the complete Canterbury Tales is available at the Librarius page. Use the Table of Contents in the left frame to click on a specific Tale, and difficult terms and phrases are glossed in the lower frame. 

3.  Historical & Cultural Backgrounds

See Julia Bolton Holloway's original research, for as she says, "Poor Second Nun! Who thus becomes a true saint! Chaucer and his wife were honoured by the city of Norwich. Norwich and Lincoln shared in the blood libel tale Chaucer has the Prioress tell. Benedictine Carrow Priory, just outside Norwich walls, had just such a Prioress, who in Julian's time even harboured a murderer. I did a study of it, visited the remains, just the terribly grand Tudor house left that a later Prioress had built for herself there, and this research is on the web. What could help too is the essay on Julian and Judaism, as well as the essay on the Prioress and the Second Nun."

The Prioress's Tale evidences one of the most pernicious aspects of medieval culture: Its pervasive antisemitism. So, the tale explicitly invokes the multifaceted relationship of Christianity and Judaism.  Part of Paul Halsall's extensive Internet Medieval Source Book, the Internet Jewish History Source Book houses an extensive collection of primary sources related to the Jewish Middle Ages. Some of the extensive listing of documents under Christian Anti-Semitism / Latin Christianity, relating specifically to England include (lightly edited): 

Continental and Papal pronouncements include:

Relations between Christians and Jews in England are illustrated by the following. (I've slightly edited and rearranged some of Halsall's links here for their relevance to England): 

Music figures prominently in the plot of the Prioress's Tale.  See Gary Rich's sublime Ars Subtilior. Music of the late Medieval period and the generous list of links there.

4.  Sources, Analogues, & Related Texts

TEAMS Middle English Text Series (Russell Peck, URochester) houses a number of lesser known and hard to find medieval texts in helpful student editions. A generous and fascinating selection not to be missed! Each selection includes a scholarly introduction and full notes. Some of the selections related to the Prioress's Tale include:

"All TEAMS texts are under copyright, whether in hard copy or in electronic form. The on-line texts provided here are meant for individual use only. To download and make multiple copies for course use, you must have permission from the managing editor of Medieval Institute Publications."

Read an associated tale from the Life of William of Norwich (12th century), whose death was also blamed on the "blood libel" legend--the anti-Semitic belief that Jews kidnapped and killed Christian children for illicit purposes.

D. L. Ashliman provides a number of anti-Semitic folktales from around Europe, medieval and modern, on his Anti-Semitic Legends. A number of these are translated from 19th century German sources. You might also like to see the folktales of the Singing Bones, wherein the body parts of murder victims cry out or sing for justice.

Harvard Classics (vol. 40), English Poetry I, From Chaucer to Gray reproduces a number of traditional (and some) medieval ballads, including Hugh of Lincoln

The Oxford Book of Ballads, ed. Arthur Quiller-Couch (1910) includes dozens of traditional (and some medieval) ballads, including some that bear upon themes in the Prioress's Tale:

5.  Online Notes & Commentary

Discussion and links concerning the Prioress's Prologue and Tale on Larry D. Benson's superlative Geoffrey Chaucer Page (Harvard). Includes e-texts of scholarly essays, sources and ancillary texts, and capsule discussions of key issues.  Some of the items related to the Prioress's Tale include:

See a number of related Tales of the Virgin from the 12th and 13th Century (Paul Halsall, IMSB).

Read articles on figures related to the Prioress's Tale from the 1913 ed. of the Catholic Encyclopedia:

  • Holy Innocents / Childermass
  • Hugh of Lincoln
  • William of Norwich

6.  Online Books & Articles

The Google Library Project has made a number of venerable older (and out of copyright) works available as fully downloadable (and quite large) .pdf files. These include:

While these older works are vitally important for their historical value and their place in the development of the history of Chaucerian criticism, they should be supplemented with current textual and critical studies.

A number of titles from the U of California Press's E-Scholarship initiative deal with anti-Semitism and the legacy of Christian - Jewish (and Muslim) relations in the medieval and early modern period, especially in Spain.  See the following: 

The articles from Cultural Frictions: Medieval Cultural Studies in Post-Modern Contexts Conference Proceedings (27-28 October 1995) are online.  Though not about the Prioress's Tale, the following article deals with some of the same issues of anti-Semitism and violence:

Essays in Medieval Studies features full-text articles from the proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association, online version edited by Allen J. Frantzen (Loyola - Chicago), including:

7.  Student Projects & Essays

Anniina Jokkinen's strikingly beautiful and highly useful Luminarium includes a substantial list of professional and student essays on a number of medieval authors, and individual pages on, Chaucer, the Gawain Poet, Langland, Margery Kempe, and Julian of Norwich. Jokkinen also compiles a number of resources by Canterbury Tale: The Prioress's Tale

8.  Online Bibliography

9.  Syllabi & Course Descriptions

10.  Images & Multimedia

The Massacre of the Innocents (from Matthew 2) is a subtext of the Prioress's Tale, and images of the Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents are pervasive in medieval culture.  See the following:

11.  Language Helps & Audio Files

Sample audio files (.wav, .au, .aiff) from the Prioress's Tale, recorded at Campion College, University of Regina, 1989, and at the 7th International Congress of the New Chaucer Society, University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990, are available from the Chaucer Studio (Paul Thomas, Brigham Young).

12. Potpourri

13.  The Next Step


Google Academic Resources

Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Google Book

Google Custom Search: 

  • The Kankedort Medieval Search Engine

I welcome your suggestions for suitable websites. Please be patient as I tune the search terms. 


The Poor Medieval Scholar's
Electronic Bookshelf

and

The Electronic Canterbury Tales
Bookshop
 

This subpage of the Electronic Canterbury Tales offers several features:

  • The Poor Scholar's Electronic Bookshelf: No cost books (generally older studies) available via the Google Books project and other public online projects. 

  • The ECT Bookshop: Scroll down to the Electronic Canterbury Tales Bookshop (with recommended titles) hosted by Amazon.com.

  • Online Search Links will take you to major online booksellers and homepages to lesser-known but excellent specialty bookshops.

I'll cross-list the recommended Google Books on the appropriate webpage throughout the Electronic Canterbury Tales under Online Articles & Books (on the expanded Electronic Canterbury Tales - Kankedort.Net Index Page) and also detail them on the webpages devoted to specific Canterbury Tales or associated pages). 

This will be an ongoing project, so check back periodically for new finds!


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How to Document
Print & Electronic Sources:
The Chaucer Pedagogy
Documentation Primer



 


The Poor Medieval Scholar's Electronic Bookshelf

(no cost, older academic books, in .pdf form from the 
Google Library Project)

The Electronic Canterbury Tales Bookshop

(recommended books for the study of Chaucer and Late-Medieval England, hosted by Amazon.com)

The Kankedort
Gift Shoppe

(with many serious and some silly offerings for the medievalist in your life)


About This Website

ECT Revision History:
What's New?

Headings, Organization, &
Criteria for Inclusion

 

Additional Chaucer Pages in The Electronic Canterbury Tales

Chaucer the Pilgrim-Narrator & Author

Chaucer's "Orphan" Pilgrims - Those without a Tale

The Frame Tale, Later Continuations,
& Chaucerian Apocrypha

Manuscripts, Printed Editions, & Electronic Texts

Electronic Chaucer Texts:
What's Available Online?

Chaucer in / and Popular Culture

Troilus and Criseyde

Documentation Primer

Chaucer Pedagogy Page

Major Medieval Conferences Websites

International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan Univ. (Kalamazoo, MI)

International Medieval Congress, Univ. of Leed (Leeds England)

 

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The Electronic Canterbury Tales 

  © 1998-2007 Daniel T. Kline & www.kankedort.net All rights reserved

This page was last revised on 01.05.07.